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Graduate
exam undergoes changes An analytical writing section will be added beginning in October to the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), the exam required for most graduate programs. The new writing section will replace the current analytical section in the general test. Steve Woodworth, the graded advisor in the history department, said he thinks the old version of the GRE wasn’t doing a good enough job measuring analytical skills. The history department, like all departments with graduate studies, admits graduate students through the departmental office, not through the admissions office. Woodworth said graduate students in the history department are always writing for their classes and the GRE scores are very important for consideration for acceptance. “We believe (the GRE) is a good indicator,” Woodworth said. “It’s not to say we don’t make exceptions perhaps for international students.” There are currently three or four international students in the history graduate program, he said. John Singleton, the director of International Student Services, said that although the new GRE isn’t targeted at limiting international graduate students, he said it still has a nationwide affect on them. The analytical writing section contains two writing tasks to organize, support and analyze ideas and arguments. The GRE also contains unchanged verbal and quantitative sections. “(International students) have it incredibly different,” Singleton said. “They have cultural limits when structuring an argument.” Singleton also said the GRE and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) don’t measure the success an international student would have in graduate school but they are used to evaluate the necessary communication skills. “No one wants to admit a student who can’t function (at the same level as the rest of the students),” Singleton said. “That’s why the GRE is still important and required by many graduate programs.” Sherrie Reynolds, the interim director of graduate education in the School of Education, said the GRE is not required of prospective graduate students and the new writing section won’t have a significant affect on admittance. Although Reynolds said she has many international students in the graduate education program, she said their written English skills aren’t the sole factor in their acceptance. “(GRE scores) are one thing among others that we evaluate on,” Reynolds said. “We’re very personal with our applicants and we can’t see character from a test score.” Colleen
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